138 ALAUDULA. 



would approach and circumvent a female, and then rise above 

 her head and pour out his song as he ascended vertically with 

 a gentle beat of wings, and not in the spiral circles that 

 characterise the impetuous singing flight of our Sky-Lark. 

 The song, uttered both on the wing and when stationary, 

 consists of the call-notes constantly repeated. In the early 

 morning, when numbers of these Larks were singing over- 

 head, it was not unusual to find some singing in chorus, and 

 this tended to lessen the somewhat monotonous character of 

 their songs. When on the gi'ound a ventriloquial call-note was 

 constantly uttered, becoming very persistent just towards dusk. 

 The nest is placed in a small depression in the loose stony 

 soil, either among a patch of grass or underneath a boulder 

 or a small creeping plant common on the island. It is a frail 

 structure of dry grass, and if any attempt be made to detach 

 it from its surroundings it falls to pieces in the hand. Incu- 

 bation lasts for a pei'iod of thirteen days, both sexes sharing 

 in the task. The eggs, three in number, resemble both in 

 colouration and dimensions those of the "Wood-Lark (Alauda 

 arborea), from which, if they were to be mixed up, there 

 would be a great difficulty in picking them out again. As 

 Sig. Fea has killed over thirty specimens on this one small 

 island, I can only hope that the species may not become 

 extinct." 



Genus XV. ALAUDULA. 



Very similar to Calandrella, but differing in the secondaries being much 

 shorter, the ends falling short of the tip of the wing by about 075 inch, or 

 by three-quarters of the length of the tarsus. 



Type. 

 Alaudula, Horsf. and Moore, Cat. B. M. B. I. Co. iii. p. 471 



(185C) A. raytal. 



t 



